…the NIH in fact keeps incredibly detailed records of their grant-making. This is especially useful because, of the approximately $130 billion spent by the federal government on R&D every year, the NIH accounts for approximately $34 billion (a percentage of the total topped only by the Department of Defense, which keeps the least informative, least specific, and least reliable numbers of any agency). So, while we can’t get a complete picture of federal R&D spending at the sub-state level, we believe that the NIH data represents the best portrait currently available.

Over at The Atlantic Cities, we have some top ten lists as well as the following map of the aggregate funding:

But don’t read too much into the picture:

Ultimately, our insight into the impact of federal spending is blunted by weak data availability, and the resultant missing analysis means that outside observers have little grounds to evaluate billions of dollars of government spending. The NIH has done an admirable job in making its process and output transparent – should other agencies follow suit, more minds could apply themselves to easily overlooked inefficiencies in spending, and as we all know: all problems are shallow given enough brains. And enough data.